NAIAS Focuses on Hybrid, Electric & Sustainability

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NAIAS Focuses on Hybrid, Electric & Sustainability

The Ford Focus Monster Rally Car

Sustainability. This was the word that I was hearing repeated over and over at this years NAIAS (North American International Auto Show) in Detroit, Michigan. The official definition of sustainability is the capacity to endure. It's used to describe how biological systems remain productive over time. In this context, it was used to describe the future of the automobile industry, to not only remain competitive, but looking to the future of diminishing energy sources and the search for more sustainable "green" sources of energy.

In full disclosure, my trip to NAIAS in Detroit was fully comped by the Ford Motor Company. Just so my Wired overlords know, I went as a representative of DigitalDads.com, not Wired.com. I have already filed my story there (which you are welcome to read,) but I feel that there is more to be said, and I'm saying it here. Now that we've got that business out of the way, moving on.

Going "green" is the future of the automobile industry, and it seems that they have finally embraced this concept. Of course, when everything is "green" it will no longer be a concept and I won't have to put it in quotes anymore. The point is that modern fossil fuel sources such as oil will eventually be drying up. Whether car companies notice this or because of the politics and money involved in the process being the main motivator is hard to say. I'd like to think that they are just looking towards the future and evolving, rather than looking for the payday that would come with keeping up with the current trend.

But trends are what shape this industry. Take the muscle cars of the 1970's and the craptastic compact cars of the late 1980's and early 1990's. Now, green is the new trend and if auto companies aren't participating, then they eventually be left behind. This couldn't have been more evident than when GM dumped the Hummer brand, which is a contradiction to everything automakers appear to be currently working towards.

The industry knows that green is the future, as the Chevy Volt was named Car of the Year at NAIAS. The Volt is of course GM's premier hybrid electric vehicle, as if that wasn't clear in the name. GM wasn't the only one pimping new hybrid cars. Everyone from Lexus to Mercedes, BMW and so on had an entry into the electric hybrid market. At least one for nearly all of them. While they all were nice and pretty and understandable, the luxury brands just didn't make sense to me with only touting one hybrid vehicle. You'd think if you had the money to buy one of those cars, you'd have the money to buy the one that is the best for the environment. By that logic, you'd think they'd be producing a whole line of electric/hybrid cars.

It goes without saying that I was more than impressed with Tesla. The fairly new automaker revealed their new sedan, accompanied by their roadsters. The full electric vehicles are expensive - for now - but are probably the most intriguing and beautiful cars that I had the pleasure of dreamingly touching at the show. Anytime you guys at Tesla want to send me one to drive - I'm game.

That's a Tesla. That's awesome.

When it came to an overall attention and focus on future sustainability and green living, regardless of who paid for the trip, Ford stood out from the rest of the crowd, especially among the American auto makers. I wasn't alone in this line of thinking. When it comes to green living, no one knows it better than the green living guy himself, Seth Leitman, of greenlivingguy.com;

"Ford Motor Co has done a lot of work to be blogger inclusive in their efforts to communicate their message worldwide. That was a great thing since social media is exploding worldwide. They also are offering the eco boost, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric cars for the public.

"However, the eco boost is an option rather than a standard and they are only offering one EV rather than offering all models as electric. From my interview with Bill Ford at the auto show, it seemed that once demand picks up, they will expand their electric drive portfolio of cars. The one thing that was overlooked at the event which Ford should be commended on was that since 2003 they saved over 22 trillion btu in manufacturing energy consumption. That efficiency has led to at least tens of millions of dollars in energy costs worldwide."

The point is that automakers need to be moving into the green tech, and they are, but they aren't moving fast enough. Whether this is because the government subsidies aren't there, or because the cost effectiveness isn't there yet, I don't know. I do know that Ford was the one American car company to not take some of that sweet bailout money, and they are the only American car company that seems to again be ignoring the government and the mainstream to head steadfastly in the sustainability direction. Now, the rest of the field needs to follow suit, and if they are, they need to be more vocal about it.